The End?
by kalijahrulez
Summary: "He accpets the cure, and then he lets her go. She's fighting back tears. She closes her eyes as she realizes he's done trying to find his Katerina." One shot about Katherine and Elijah's feelings at the end of American Gothic.


They say that time heals all wounds. But the truth is, there are certain sorrows and pains that never fade. Nothing can take away the scars or the memories. Five hundred years and she still feels it all. Deep down, beneath this monster she has become, there is an honest, kind, innocent little girl trying to break free. She can not show it, though. She has to hide that part of her from others. There are too many people who might try to use it against her. She would never admit it to anyone, but sometimes, when she is all alone, she cries. She cries for her mother. She cries for her sister. She cries for her baby girl. She cries for her humanity. She cries for hours at a time sometimes. No one understands her, no one ever will. All they see when they look at her is a monster, and she can't really blame them. She knows she is a monster. But she wasn't always like this. Once upon a time, she was a young girl with hopes and dreams. In love with the very idea of love. She had a light in her eyes that could put even the sun to shame. Despite all that life had thrown at her, she remained strong. Her heart had been beaten and broken by her father and by a man whose face she never even saw. Her father who beat her on a daily basis, and the man who raped her in an alley. You would think that after all of that, she would be completely broken, but she wasn't. Somehow she was able to pick herself up and dust herself off every time life tried to get her down. She never broke, not once, until the night her baby girl came into the world. She remembers the pain she felt when she watched her baby be taken away. That broke her. She was broken for a while after that. She loved her baby girl fiercely from the first moment she ever felt her kick. She swore she could never love anything more, but oh how she was wrong. There was one person who would stand above all the others in her heart. Elijah Mikaelson.

She wasn't sure how or when it happened, but she fell in love with him. She knew it was wrong. She was supposed to love his brother. Klaus was the one she was set to marry, but her heart would never belong to him. No, her heart could only ever be Elijah's. She remembers warm summer days spent in the gardens. Talking about life and love. Every day she fell harder and harder. She thought that he was the one, but she would soon discover that all was not as it seemed. The truth was delivered to her by a man named Trevor. He told her of Klaus's plans and her first instinct was to find Elijah. She trusted him. She needed him. But then Trevor told her something that crushed her._ He already knew._ Elijah knew everything and he had been in on it since day one. She was just a game to him, a means to an end. Everything he pretended to feel for her was just that, _pretend_. He was never actually her friend. The pain she felt when she learned the truth about Elijah was unbearable. She thought she could trust him, but she was wrong. She ran that night. She ran and she never stopped. She could feel her humanity slipping away and when she found her family slaughtered, it sealed the deal. She flipped the switch and from that moment on, she was Katherine Pierce. She became a monster. She lied and deceived her way through life. She manipulated people and toyed with men. She became everything that Katerina never was. But this only lasted three hundred years. Slowly, humanity began to creep it's way back in. She met Pearl and suddenly she began to feel again. They became best friends and for a while she was happy. She finally had a family again. Something to love, something to live for, and something to fight for. But then came 1864, and it felt like life had just slapped her in the face. She survived, but she lost a big part of herself in that fire. She would never be the same. She lets people believe it was her behind the fire for one simple reason: Survival. She can't show her weaknesses, especially not to the Salvatore's. Still, she can't stop herself from going after John Gilbert. He killed her family, and he had to pay.

Elijah always looks for reasons to have hope, even when everyone else in the world is certain she is hopeless. It is his disease. His mind sees the woman she has become. Cold, vindictive, ruthless. But his heart remembers the girl she once was. Sweet, kind, loving. The girl who restored his faith in love. The girl who made him question where his loyalties lay. The girl who told him that life without love is not worth living. She made him feel alive after ages of feeling dead. She made him smile, laugh, but then she also made him hurt. After all the time they spent together, she didn't trust him. She found out about his brother's plans and she ran. She ran and never looked back. It would be nearly five hundred years before he would see her again. Over those years he heard many stories about his precious Katerina. How she became a vampire, how she switched off her emotions, how she uses and manipulates men, how she became a monster. She even went so far as to change her name. His innocent Katerina Petrova became the cold-hearted Katherine Pierce. That is the woman he found after five hundred years of searching. She was magically locked inside a dark tomb. He looked into her eyes and couldn't believe what he saw. This wasn't his Katerina anymore. The stories were all true. Eyes that once looked at him with love and happiness now stared at him with distrust and fear. His heart broke in that moment, but he couldn't let it show. She had changed and he told himself that he should, too. Instead of helping her, he left her. He walked away from her and he didn't look back. He went home and as hard as he tried, he couldn't help but shed a few tears. His Katerina was dead. She is merely a shell now. Katherine Pierce has taken control and she is there to stay. He convinces himself of this and he believes it for a while. But then comes the year 2013. The year that changes everything, if only for a short amount of time.

She finds him. She tells him about Elena becoming a vampire and about the cure. At first, it is strictly business. But soon, it becomes so much more. They spend more and more time together. Pretty soon they are almost always together. He believes he's finally found her. Beneath this Katherine facade, he sees his Katerina trying to break through. He still has his doubts. He knows she has a reputation for lying and breaking hearts, but he can't help himself. The first time they kiss, it feels like his heart is going to burst from his chest. She confesses her love to him, and he confesses his to her. The first time they make love, he comes to a conclusion. This is the only girl for him. He will never feel this way for anyone else. All is perfect. They have a plan. They are going to be together forever and always. He can't believe that after five hundred years of believing it could never happen, he has his Katerina. She loves him and he loves her. But this romance is short-lived. Everything changes once she gets the cure. He asks her how things went and she says fine. He asks her if there is anything he should know about how she got the cure and she says no. She lies to him. Elena Gilbert tells him the truth. His Katerina truly is gone. Katherine has been playing him this entire time. Nothing she claims to feel for him is real. Because of Katherine, her doppelgänger is doomed to live the same life that she endured. He has never felt more foolish. When he confronts Katherine, she brushes it off. She says that Jeremy was collateral damage, a means to survival. He questions her. He asks if that is what he is as well. She told him no, claims she loves him. He wants more than anything to believe her, but this is Katherine talking, not his Katerina. But then he sees the look in her eyes and hears the pain in her voice. For a brief moment, he lets himself hope again. But it isn't enough. He leaves her, not intending to ever speak to her again. But she has other plans.

She knows she needs to make a choice. There are only two options. 1: Shove the cure down Klaus's throat and kill him so that she can finally be free, or 2: Prove her love to Elijah by giving him the cure, showing him that she isn't as lost as he thinks she is. She's surprised by how easy it is for her to make her choice. She gives the cure to Elijah. As much as she wants to see Klaus dead, and as much as she would gain from his death, she would lose so much more. She would lose the only man she has ever truly loved. And she is not willing to take that risk. She doesn't care what happens to her now, as long as Elijah knows that she loves him. She will spend the rest of her eternity running if she has to. Her freedom isn't worth losing him. She sees the inner battle he is having with himself as she gives him the cure. She can't blame him for not trusting her. She knows that she's screwed up. She lied to him, but it was only because she didn't want to disappoint him. He wants her to be Katerina again, and so does she, but it's not that easy. She is so used to living as Katherine Pierce now. She is starting to believe her own lies. He deserves better, but still, as she walks away she silently prays for him to stop her. But he doesn't. He accepts the cure, and then he lets her go. She's fighting back tears. She closes her eyes as she realizes he's done trying to find his Katerina. Her heart is in a thousand pieces and when she's far enough away, she lets the tears fall. She gets back to her apartment and as she shuts the door, she falls to the ground. She lies there on the floor for hours, crying. Her whole body shakes and she feels like she's dying. She was foolish to believe that she could actually be happy. Lying there on the floor, she knows only one thing to be true, she loves him and she will wait forever if she has to. She knows he will probably never give her another chance, but she will still wait. Until the day she takes her last breath, she will never give up hope.

**So this is just a quick one-shot. I have been a Kalijah shipper since forever. My heart absolutely broke at the end of American Gothic and I just had to write this. The love between Elijah and Katherine is so beautiful and I can not accept that they are over. If you like this one shot, you should check out my story The One That Got Away, which is also Kalijah. Anyway, reviews would be great. (:**


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